Kelaan wrote:What I like about it is that the combat appears smoother and more engaging than that in Elder Scrolls, while still having a compelling ability to mix and match magic / face-smashin. Respecs in a single player game also make me happy.

Any game that allows for respeccing always gets a ton of points from me

Graphics - Very stylized visuals, colorful and bright, cartoony. I like it. Not exactly a heavy hitter in the tech department, the graphics are low- to mid- range current generation. Combat animations are great, but facial animations are stiff (basically just frozen faces with flapping jaws).

Sound - It's not a long demo, so I'll only comment that the voice work is pretty standard. Nothing bad, but not great, either. PC is silent except for grunts and shouts.

Customization - Pretty deep. You can choose between 4 races and both genders. Each of these 8 choices have 5 preset faces, and you can customize further. Not as expansive as Skyrim, but decent enough to get the look you want. There are 10 Skills to upgrade when leveling, with 12 points in each. These include crafting, stealth, lockpicking, persuasion, etc. Not only improve effects of the skill, but certain points include new functions of the skill. Like, Alchemy raises your chance to harvest reagents, but with enough points you unlock the ability to combine more components, or add special ingredients, or just learn every recipe possible (at 12 points).

You also get Ability points per level. I don't know how many each level, but at the beginning it's 3. You then spend them in the Might, Finesse, and Magic trees. Abilities don't get better with use, so you're encouraged to mix and match whatever style you want. There are a lot of Abilities in each, with multiple levels of each ability. The highest ranked Abilities require 70 points in a single tree.

And then there's Destinies, which are simply a set of passive bonuses to make your character better at whatever you've built them up to be. Depending on how many points you spend in the three trees, you unlock Destiny Cards. Like, 6 points in Might will get you a basic warrior card, or 4 points in all three will get you a basic jack of all trades card. The highest ranked cards require 109-111 points to unlock (109 for a "pure" Destiny, like Magic only. Or 37 in each tree to unlock the jack of all trades. Or 55 in two trees, like Magic/Finesse.).

And finally armor. You can wear anything as long as your level is high enough. Warrior armor gives bonuses to melee blocking with a shield, rogue armor adds to crit chance, and mage armor gives better mana regen. There are more effects based on the armor or your crafting.

Combat - The main draw of the game, and it's worth it in my opinion. THIS is what Fable combat should have been. You can equip and Primary and Secondary weapon, and go back and forth between them without sheathing. You can also block with a shield at any time, and also do a rolling dodge. And you can equip 4 Abilities at a time, holding the Right Trigger and pressing one of the 4 buttons to use them. Using weapons, you can just mash the button for a basic string of attacks. But different timings can lead to combos, and combos give more exp and fate. Like, with a Sword, you can tap X for an attack, pause for a second, then tap X again to launch enemies into the air with an upward sweep. You unlock more combos to use in the Abilities. Even mage weapons have combos. As you attack enemies, you earn Fate. When you have enough, you can enter a mode where you can move faster and do more damage, leading to powerful and dramatic finishing moves that give even more exp. Potions are also easily chugged, whether you think that's good or bad is up to you.

Crafting - I didn't get to do much, but it seems interesting enough. For Blacksmithing, each item type has a specific recipe (dagger blades + hilt = daggers), and the quality and bonus effects are based on the components you use. As you progress the skill, you unlock more components you can add (starting with 2, eventually having 4 plus a gem). For Alchemy, you have 19 reagents that you can combine, between 2 and 5 different ones per potion. I didn't really get to try this, but there is some experimenting involved. Also, collecting reagents can often fail if you don't raise your Alchemy skill. I didn't even see Sagecraft, making gemstones for socketed items and high level crafting.

Gameworld - From the map, it seems large. It's not exactly "open world" though, as each region is separated and the only way to get from one to the next is a narrow passageway.

Summary - I'm going to recommend this game to RPG fans. It's not going to be groundbreaking or epic, but it's definitely of good quality. Maybe if you're unsure, wait for the price drop. I went ahead and preordered.

I honestly found the "insta-shield" to be one of my "not going to buy this game" things. It sorta broke immersion for me. If I have had a big ass shield to block with, then damn it I want to see the thing all the time.

Grehn|Skipjack wrote:Whatever happened to Quebec seceding? If they do that, can we invade? America could really use the revenue from exporting syrup and hockey players.

Aedh wrote:I honestly found the "insta-shield" to be one of my "not going to buy this game" things. It sorta broke immersion for me. If I have had a big ass shield to block with, then damn it I want to see the thing all the time.

I dislike it a little bit, but I see it as little different from a fighting game's "block" move. I'm sure I'll look past it once I start playing.

enjoyed the heck out of the game. i am a huge fan of assassin's creed for the story but more for the faux historical aspects of the game. some of it is legit (like the borgia's with being strange people)...but just the designs and everything else. but it doesn't have a hold of me like i think this game can get a hold.

get out of the well of souls...go to the first town...sell some things...buy the iron greatsword...which looks fantastic...along with some new armor...go around and do some quests...explore the little bit i can...go back to the town and accidently kill a citizen and then have to wipe out the entire small town because of the guards. that let me just raid the chests and also blacksmith in piece. created some new daggers...broke down a hammer and made a new hammer.

one thing that i love about wow is the weapon designs. that's what i like about this game so far. the first hammer...the iron hammer...looks great. sort of like an elementium mind crusher...but better. and the iron greatsword looks fantastic.

I'm a bit concerned about how bug-free it'll be at release, though. Just in the demo alone, I noticed about a dozen glitches (graphics-wise) and some pretty insane screen tearing.

I'm not sure if it was just a download thing, or if the textures are really that mixed up. It shouldn't be the PS3, since I just replaced the damn thing (thanks to Skyrim bricking my old 80gb "fatty").

- I'm not Jesus, but I can turn water into Kool-Aid.- A Sergeant in motion outranks an officer who doesn't know what the hell is going on.- A demolitions specialist at a flat run outranks everybody.

from what i have read, teh demo was taken from a version that was a few months old and the current version has those bugs fixed

idk how it was on xbox or PS3, but on pc it wasnt that buggy, mostly just lag spikes

Brekkie:Tanks are like shitty DPS. And healers are like REALLY distracted DPSAmirya:Why yes, your penis is longer than his because you hit 30k dps in the first 10 seconds. But guess what? That raid boss has a dick bigger than your ego. Flex:I don't make mistakes. I execute carefully planned strategic group wipes.Levie:(in /g) It's weird, I have a collar and I dont know where I got it from, Worgen are kinky!Levie:Drunk Lev goes and does what he pleases just to annoy sober Lev.Sagara:You see, you need to *spread* the bun before you insert the hot dog.

Aedh wrote:Either I am just that stupid, but I cannot seem to be able to get the demo on XBL. Seems I have to something called a "gold membership." What kind of bs is that?

A gold membership is the monthly subscription to Xbox Live. It runs 24.99/3 months or 59.99/Year. It enables you to play Xbox online with other people, gives you access to facebook/netflix/hulu/other things. And early access to demos etc etc.

Aedh wrote:Either I am just that stupid, but I cannot seem to be able to get the demo on XBL. Seems I have to something called a "gold membership." What kind of bs is that?

A gold membership is the monthly subscription to Xbox Live. It runs 24.99/3 months or 59.99/Year. It enables you to play Xbox online with other people, gives you access to facebook/netflix/hulu/other things. And early access to demos etc etc.

reading that makes me like steam alot more....

Brekkie:Tanks are like shitty DPS. And healers are like REALLY distracted DPSAmirya:Why yes, your penis is longer than his because you hit 30k dps in the first 10 seconds. But guess what? That raid boss has a dick bigger than your ego. Flex:I don't make mistakes. I execute carefully planned strategic group wipes.Levie:(in /g) It's weird, I have a collar and I dont know where I got it from, Worgen are kinky!Levie:Drunk Lev goes and does what he pleases just to annoy sober Lev.Sagara:You see, you need to *spread* the bun before you insert the hot dog.

Aedh wrote:Either I am just that stupid, but I cannot seem to be able to get the demo on XBL. Seems I have to something called a "gold membership." What kind of bs is that?

A gold membership is the monthly subscription to Xbox Live. It runs 24.99/3 months or 59.99/Year. It enables you to play Xbox online with other people, gives you access to facebook/netflix/hulu/other things. And early access to demos etc etc.

reading that makes me like steam alot more....

I will be the first person to claim that XBL requiring a paid subscription is a load of horse crap, but I will also be the first person to tell you that Microsoft provides by and far the best online experience of any of the consoles, by a landslide. PC is hit and miss. A lot of big title games released on PC/Xbox/360 tend to do a lot worse on PC simply because of the target demographic, so you don't see a ton of clamoring for a good community platform like XBL or PSN. Steam is a good Distribution source, but it's Multiplayer aspects fall short in the face of Xbox live.

really i dont use steam for multiplayer, it is mostly for just demos and stuff like that

iirc the only game i have that is through steam is TF2

Brekkie:Tanks are like shitty DPS. And healers are like REALLY distracted DPSAmirya:Why yes, your penis is longer than his because you hit 30k dps in the first 10 seconds. But guess what? That raid boss has a dick bigger than your ego. Flex:I don't make mistakes. I execute carefully planned strategic group wipes.Levie:(in /g) It's weird, I have a collar and I dont know where I got it from, Worgen are kinky!Levie:Drunk Lev goes and does what he pleases just to annoy sober Lev.Sagara:You see, you need to *spread* the bun before you insert the hot dog.

RedAces wrote:Today my joy was instantly killed by one sentence: "Kingdom of Amalur will use EA's Origin as platform".

Buyers beware - do you want to install willingly a trojan and enjoy this game or boycott is and miss an awesome game? I'll choose the 2nd option. Poor developers

Explain to me again how EA origin is a Trojan? A giant publisher has made it's own distribution platform, and they made it a trojan virus, because they think "Herpaderpa, people so dumb, we hack dem." It's been proven multiple times by EA and IGN and I believe GameSpot as well, that it is NOT a virus. Stop spreading misinformation.

Can you link me this proof please? There was a big documentary about Origin in the PC Games Hardware and other media with alot of informations. They scan your whole hard drive, all active processes and can ban you without any reason at all. They can revoke your license of BF3 if you (illegally) cracked an EA game 5 years ago (or did other things they don't like). They have multiple illegal statements in their EULA, etc (despite them not being legally compliant in the EU & Ger). Even their revised EULA is fishy at best and they just altered the contract NOT THE SOFTWARE itself. So everything they've done with the old contract - they're still doing it.

Not to derail, but since we're talking about Xbox Live subscriptions, I have the Silver (free) subscription. I buy Microsoft points when I want to add something, but I don't play online or such. I am carrying a balance of around 1600 MS points currently.

My account has been hacked twice in 4 months and each time they had to disable my account for an entire month to resolve the issue.

It really seems extortionate - give up your 1600 MS points or we take away your account for a month.

Anyway, I've had bad service experiences, and there's no way I would pay for the gold service given this level of account security and how the account has to be disabled for an entire month for them to solve a problem. In this day and age, that is an absurd amount of time.

i downloaded it on my ps3 and played it again. really enjoyed the blacksmithing part. also went opposite of what i usually do and ended up wiping out the entire first town because i was tired of getting "arrested" for stealing books and whatnot.

got a bunch of gear, broke it down with blacksmithing...made a mace with fire damage and a couple daggers with fire damage.

then in the second dungeon i went into i got an purple/epic shield that i could only use with 3 points in finesse...which i had. so it was pretty interesting.

i also like the fact that you can name your weapons after you create them in blacksmithing.

RedAces wrote:Can you link me this proof please? There was a big documentary about Origin in the PC Games Hardware and other media with alot of informations. They scan your whole hard drive, all active processes and can ban you without any reason at all. They can revoke your license of BF3 if you (illegally) cracked an EA game 5 years ago (or did other things they don't like). They have multiple illegal statements in their EULA, etc (despite them not being legally compliant in the EU & Ger). Even their revised EULA is fishy at best and they just altered the contract NOT THE SOFTWARE itself. So everything they've done with the old contract - they're still doing it.

I'm not finding the old articles on Gamespot/IGN, but I did find a little bit on Kotaku, both in the article and the comments section. I am a little pressed for time to find you some more, but rest assured when I get the time, I will do a bit more searching.

EA will ban you from playing your Origin games in single player for ... other people cursing at you in the forums. Not even you trolling yourself. A forum ban will prevent you from playing the games, even single player ones.

Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:

“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”

Yeah ... I really wanted to play Amalur, but I trust Origin about as far as a murloc can throw Deathwing. I don't plan to participate on their forums, so I'm probably safe, but ... this kind of crap is why people look for the Collector's^WRazor1911 Edition of the game.